Q: You’re putting time and energy into this “temporary” job for your bathroom (not to mention some money), so why not just go ahead and do the full gut job? I know you guys watch money really well, but isn’t this not the most cost-effective in the long-run? 🙂 – Karen
A: Great question. We love saving money, but we also enjoy making an older house feel like home. Often a small, thoughtful Phase 1 update is the smartest move: it makes the space livable and gives you time to learn what you truly want before committing to a full gut renovation.
When we first moved into our house, we were tempted to freeze rooms until we could afford total overhauls. Over time we learned that inexpensive, short-term upgrades—what we call “sweat investments”—can be hugely worthwhile. A few cans of paint, a new mirror, or swapping out a light fixture can change the feel of a room for a couple hundred dollars and give you breathing room to plan the big project. Those small changes also let you experiment inexpensively so you discover what you like and don’t like before demolition begins, which can save both money and regret.
Take our current bathroom project as an example, where we set a Phase 1 budget of roughly $100–$200.
We simply couldn’t stand the old carpet any longer, so an interim update made sense. By removing the carpet, repainting, and adding a new mirror, the room became instantly more pleasant—without blowing our savings. These temporary upgrades are also portable: a mirror or light can be reused elsewhere when the time comes for a full remodel. (The image above is a photoshopped rendering of our plans; we hope to stencil the floors next week.)
Why not gut everything immediately? From experience, rushing into a full renovation right after moving in can mean missing better layout solutions that only reveal themselves over time. In our first house it took us more than a year to realize closing a door would free up a significant amount of counter space. If we’d gutted the kitchen immediately, we would have had new cabinets and counters but kept the same cramped layout.
Back then we did a Phase 1 kitchen update—painted cabinets and installed peel-and-stick floor tile—while saving for the full reno. It cost roughly $150 for paint, primer, and flooring, and yet we enjoyed a fresher, more functional kitchen for over a year. That brief investment made living in the house nicer (we even hosted our wedding in the backyard and had 75 guests), and it gave us time to refine a plan for the eventual full renovation.
When we were ready to renovate the kitchen for real, we had a well-considered plan and were thrilled with the final result. The Phase 1 updates paid off in comfort while we saved, and the extended timeline helped us arrive at a more functional and satisfying design.
We used the same phased approach in the first house’s full bathroom. The room originally had carpet and dated finishes.
For several years we did modest fixes—pulled up the carpet, re-caulked, painted, and added art and lighting. Those changes made the space usable and pleasant while we saved and planned the full gut job. Up close, the tile and flooring were damaged and ultimately unsalvageable, so when we finally tackled a complete renovation we rebuilt from the studs and installed a marble floor, tiled the tub/shower to the ceiling, added a custom vanity, and updated all the fixtures—for about $1,800.
Living with interim updates instead of remaining stuck with an unpleasant room made all the difference. Phase 1 allowed us to enjoy the house immediately and plan thoroughly for a result we truly loved.
We’ve been refining this phased approach for over seven years, and it’s how we plan to handle nearly every room in our current house. We prefer to take our time, save for lasting choices, and avoid rushing into costly mistakes. But that doesn’t mean tolerating unpleasant conditions—paint, new fixtures, art, and a few small changes can make a room feel fresher and more like home while you plan bigger projects.
Experimenting in the actual space, rather than only imagining changes, helps you learn quickly. In our first house’s bathroom we tried a few looks that didn’t work—painting a windowsill black and hanging a blue pashmina taught us what we didn’t like. Those experiments let us course-correct and eventually reach a result we loved even more after the full renovation.
Think of small updates as steps that lead from “before” to “after.” Skipping directly from living with a problem to a major renovation isn’t always necessary or wise. A Phase 1 update can reveal that a full gut job isn’t required—saving time and money—or it can clarify exactly what the bigger project must fix.
For example, our $51 guest bathroom mini-makeover—paint, a window treatment, new art, and removing an awkward mirror—transformed the room and convinced skeptics it didn’t need demolition. Similarly, a $168 hall-bath update (framing the mirror, adding a shelf, and freshening finishes) produced a completely refreshed space while leaving good tile intact.
The beauty of this method is its flexibility. If Phase 1 is enough, you save money and avoid unnecessary demolition. If it’s only a temporary measure, it still improves your day-to-day life while you fine-tune plans for Phase 2. The small-scale work helps pinpoint persistent issues—layout, damaged tile, or insufficient counter space—so your eventual renovation addresses the right problems.
How do you balance improving a space without overspending? Everyone’s approach is different. Some rooms get the “freeze” treatment; others get small, targeted updates when waiting becomes unbearable. For us, the moments when we simply can’t stand a room anymore usually point to the best candidates for a Phase 1 intervention.
Update – Want to know where we got something in our house or which paint colors we used? Click the button below.